Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Eye of the Needle Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 13, 2022

Richard Marquand's "Eye of the Needle" (1981) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sandpiper Pictures. The supplemental features on the release include vintage trailer for the film and alternate ending. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The chameleon

The talent is there, and so is the good story from Ken Follett’s novel, but Eye of the Needle is still one seriously disappointing film. It demands so much blind faith from its audience to legitimize its characters that it is not long before the whole thing begins to look like an awful parody. Truly, one has to be incredibly naïve to even begin to accept that WW2 might have been won or lost by real characters behaving like the ones that Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan were hired to play.

An elusive German spy named Faber but known to his foes and comrades as The Needle (Sutherland) is on a mission to acquire crucial information that could determine who emerges victorious in an inevitable decisive clash between Hitler’s armies and the Allies. What makes the man hard to identify and catch are his incredible instincts and ability to constantly alter his identity, as well as the fact that he was raised in his enemy’s backyard.

While terminating various British agents that have been dispatched to get him, Faber makes a shocking discovery and collects vital visual data which he is ordered to personally deliver to Hitler. He arranges to be picked up by a German submarine, but a terrible storm destroys his boat and he ends up on a remote Scottish island. Here, he begins recovering thanks to the efforts of Lucy (Nelligan) and her handicapped husband (Christopher Cazenove). Not long after that, Faber manages to seduce the visibly frustrated Lucy who fails to recognize the cold killer hiding behind his soothing voice, and then goes to work to figure out how to reconnect with the people in the submarine that is supposed to take him back to Germany.

Follett’s original story is quite good, but Stanley Mann’s screenplay and Richard Marquand’s management of the leads in the unique period environment are awful. Frankly, there is a total disconnect between the authentic environment that temporarily emerges early on, which is desperately needed for the story to be convincingly recreated on the big screen and the one that overtakes it thanks to Marquand’s obvious desire to deliver a moving period melodrama. As a result, even before the action moves to the island it already feels like the material has been extracted from an overcooked late-night cable production.

The character transformations are especially problematic and the tension that is required to build up the drama never materializes. The entire segment where the supposedly cold-hearted spy quickly forces the frustrated wife out of her cage, she cheats on her husband and then the protective mother in her reemerges to defend her child and save her country is so poorly conceived that it is difficult to imagine that it was left in its current form. For a while, it feels like the clichés would never end, so when the critical climax eventually occurs the relief is immense. (By the way, there is an alternate ending on this release that makes it even more obvious that all along Marquand and his people had the wrong concept for the film. It is awful).

The only bright spot is the predictably brilliant symphonic score by the great maestro Miklos Rosza (Ben-Hur), but even the music routinely feels at odds with the visuals. A shame.

Eye of the Needle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.84:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Eye of the Needle arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sandpiper Pictures.

In 2018, we reviewed this Region-B release of Eye of the Needle produced by the British Film Institute. It was sourced from an older and quite inconsistent master that was supplied by MGM.

This recent release offers a slightly different presentation of Eye of the Needle, but it is again sourced from the same older MGM master. What are the discrepancies? They are small, mostly meaningless, and affect colors and gamma. In the darker areas, where the age and limitations of the master were most obvious on the previous release, on this release the visuals convey the same anomalies. Typically, grain struggles, easily becomes noisy, and flattens native detail. On the other hand, there are numerous close-ups that reveal good, often even very good delineation and clarity. However, there are different ranges of highlights that are rarely as convincing as they can be. Colors are stable. However, I feel very confident stating that a brand new properly graded 4K master will reveal healthier primaries and numerous expanded ranges of supporting nuances that will improve the dynamic range of the visuals as well. There are a few shaky transitions, but image stability is good. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Eye of the Needle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

This lossless track is a replica of the one that was included on the Region-B release of Eye of the Needle, which is hardly surprising. While revisiting the film, I did not encounter any technical anomalies to report in our review. There might be some room for minor cosmetic improvements, such as rebalancing tweaks, but they will not alter substantially its quality.

Eye of the Needle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - vintage trailer for Eye of the Needle. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Alternate Ending - this alternate ending was previously included on the UK DVD release of Eye of the Needle. Remastered. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

Eye of the Needle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I have tried multiple times over the years to like this film and it has never worked. I think that the original material from Ken Follett's bestseller was clearly mishandled by screenwriter Stanley Mann and director Richard Marquand and the end result isn't any better than what an overcooked period cable production typically offers. The entire second half is a classic example of how even very good actors can look mediocre because they were asked to work with a seemingly endless arsenal of awful cliches. Sandpiper Pictures' release is sourced from the same remaster that the BFI worked with to produce its Region-B release in 2018. Occasionally it can look decent, but ideally, the film should have a far superior appearance in high-definition.